Sea-savvy students lock brains in Seward classrooms

CINTHIA RITCHIE

May 02, 2008 at 10:14AM AKST

Last Saturday morning, as runners, swimmers and bicyclists gathered outside Seward High School for the Pink Cheeks Triathlon, another type of competition was taking place inside.

One that also involved stamina, guts and the flexing of an important muscle: The brain.

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl brought together more than 125 quick-minded young men and women from across the country for two days of cranium-wrestling competition.

Twenty-five teams started Saturday morning.

By late Sunday morning, only two were left standing.

In between were a lot of thorny questions, a lot of nail biting and a lot of last-minute cramming.

As with any athletic event, there were held-back tears. Moments of endearing sportsmanship. And the undeniable glory of buzzing in with the right answer and knocking the other team flat.

Competition took place behind closed doors, with two teams seated next to each other at conference tables with buzzers, microphones and tablets. Introductions were made, hands shaken, buzzers tested.

And then the competition began.

It was a lot like Jeopardy. Questions were given, and the first to buzz in with the correct answer netted four points. It came down to buzzer strategy, with teams racing for right answers, which offered a chance to nab a grueling six-point bonus questions.

Set up in double-elimination format, the competition left little recovery time between bouts.

It wasn’t for the faint of brain.

All about the sea

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is an annual event geared toward increasing marine education among high school students. Regionals are held each February, and the winning teams advance to nationals. The Alaska Tsunami Bowl was held in Seward this year, and Team Charybdis, which represented Seward and Kenny Lake high schools, placed 10th.

This year’s state Alaska team was the Juneau-Douglas "Naughty Nautilli." Coached by Ben Carney, the team consisted of Kayla Harrison, Molly Emerson, Trentyn Days, Stephen Kubota and Ross Douglas. They didn’t make it to the double elimination round but did manage to get in their share of buzzer steals, question interceptions and bonus-point rebounds.

The final round

Sunday’s final competition round between Mission San Jose High School and last year’s runner-up Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts was fierce and wicked. The Seward High School auditorium was packed, and tight scores through the first half kept spectators at the edge of their seats.

By the beginning of the second half, the Mission underdogs led 41-39.

Then the Lincoln captain challenged a missed bonus question.

A hush fell over the room. The judges conferred.

"God is about to speak," a woman in the audience whispered.

Lincoln was awarded the points, and that minor victory sparked a buzzer charge that led to the win.

As the clock ticked down, the crowd went wild. Lincoln was awarded with a standing ovation.

Mission coach Norman Howell was pleased with their second-place finish. His team is young, he said, and when he heard that nationals was to be held in Alaska, he was sure they didn’t stand a chance. Last Christmas, two months before regionals, his team was largely unorganized.

"I thought, ‘Oh no, we’re never going to make it,’" he said.

"We’re all really surprised that we got this far," team member Debra Yen added.

The Lincoln team was a bit more confident going in to today’s competition. According to team captain Kevin Linke, they had been attending weekly study sessions for the past year.

"But doing this good, well, we weren’t expecting that," he said.

The first- and second-place teams were awarded a nine-day trip to Costa Rica to study the region’s ecosystems.

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.